The books I have gone through lately have dealt with serious stuff, so I needed something lighter to read for the holidays. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding came out a few months ago, and I thought it would be a good time to go through the whole series again. For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the last 20 years and haven’t…
Author: Cecile

Alice Munro’s Nobel Lecture
Last week, the Nobel Prize website released a video of an interview with Alice Munro, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. Being 82 years old, she was too frail to make the trip to Stockholm to accept the prize, but this video was a great way to learn more about this amazing Canadian writer. For those of you who are not familiar with her work, Alice Munro writes…

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
I arrived an hour early at Southminster United Church in Ottawa on Tuesday 24 September 2013. Already there was a line for the event One on One with Margaret Atwood. Before getting to my seat, I was given 4 buttons: “Margaret Atwood MaddAddam: See the Future, Seek the Truth”. This was the first time I was handed a gift at a literary event. I thought this was a great souvenir,…

My Black Friday Purchases…
Because I am book obsessed, my Black Friday purchases weren’t clothes or shoes or jewelry… but books, books and more books! Look at these beautiful works of art! Notice the colorful covers and spines! I think they will look right at home on my shelves! Did I mention they were 75% off? Here is a list of my acquisitions: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland The Virgin…

Knots & Crosses by Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin was in Ottawa on Saturday 30 November 2013 to talk about his new book, Saints of the Shadow Bible. Earlier that day, he was having a drink in a pub when he started chatting with one of the customers there. The guy noticed that he was Scottish, and asked Rankin what he was doing for a living. When the author told him, the guy said he was actually…

Two iconic bookstores will be closing their doors in early 2014 in Toronto
It was announced recently that two iconic Chapters stores will be closing in Toronto: Chapters Runnymede and The World’s Biggest Book Store. The building where Chapters Runnymede is located used to be a movie theatre. It was built in 1927, and the exterior and interior have been preserved to house the bookstore. It is a beautiful place, and I remember spending many hours browsing the shelves and admiring the decor….

Did you know that Oscar Wilde…
… spent two years in a London prison for the charge of gross indecency and homosexual behavior? During his imprisonment, his health deteriorated because of the food or lack thereof, and because of the hard labor he had to do there. Once released, he went to live in France under the name Sebastian Melmoth. He died of cerebral meningitis three years later, on 30 November 1900. His remains are in…

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood, the second book in the MaddAddam trilogy, came out 6 years after Oryx and Crake in 2009. It is not a sequel, but rather a companion to the first novel as it takes place on a concurrent time. Toby and Ren survived the epidemic that killed most of the human race. A series of flashbacks informs us that Toby was a therapist in a spa…

The 2013 Governor General’s Literary Awards
Yesterday, the 14 winners of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Awards were announced. Eleanor Catton won the best English fiction for The Luminaries. She also won the 2013 Man Booker Prize earlier this year. So now I have no choice but to read her book! 🙂 The story seems very interesting though, so I’m sure I will enjoy The Luminaries. I will post a review later on. Here are all…